King’s College London is the 26th university in the UK to divest from fossil fuels, according to campaigners.
Photograph: Jeffrey Blackler/Alamy Stock Photo

King’s College London has endorsed a plan that would sink millions of its £179m endowment into clean energy, and drop investments in the most polluting fossil fuels.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a King’s alumni, has previously intervened in the university’s refusal to divest from fossil fuels after a campaign by students.

But on Wednesday a senior decision-making body of the university bowed to campaigners’ demands, and endorsed a new ethical investment policy that will end the fund’s exposure to tar sands and coal for producing electricity.

King’s has an estimated £14.3-17.9m in fossil fuels, although it is not clear how much of that is in tar sands and thermal coal, which are extremely carbon intensive. The move is similar to one made by the Church of England last year.

The university is the 26th in the UK to divest from fossil fuels, according to campaigners. Significantly, the investment policy also includes a clause that 15% of the £179m fund be channelled in a phased manner to greener, low-carbon alternatives.

Tytus Murphy, a former PhD student at the university, said: “Our principal and senior management should be commended for agreeing to use the college’s endowment as a force for good by investing in a future world powered by clean energy.”

The endowment, the sixth biggest of any UK university, currently has exposure to companies including Anglo American, Rio Tinto and coalminer Glencore. On Tuesday Glencore’s chairman, Tony Hayward, said renewable energy would not be cost competitive with fossil fuels until mid-century, much later than expected by most authorities.

The policy was put forward by King’s Socially Responsible Investment review committee, and endorsed by decision-making body the chairman’s committee on Wednesday. It recommends that: “the university directs its investment managers to develop a plan enabling divestment on King’s behalf from companies involved in the extraction of the most ‘dirty’ fossil fuels such as tar sands oil and thermal coal.

“In practice this would mean divesting from companies where more than 10% of their revenues are derived from these fossil fuels on the basis that such companies are unlikely to be a contributor to the transition to a low-carbon economy.”

Worldwide, fossil fuel campaigners have secured commitments to divestments worth $3.4tn. Last week, the committee that handles east London local authority Waltham Forest’s £735m pension fund committed to divest from fossil fuels.